Sunday Sermon, 21 September 2025
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Proper 20 (C)
The Feast of St Matthew
Thanksgiving and Farewell Service for the ministry of Revd Ashley Henderson
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah
My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick.
Hark, the cry of my poor people
from far and wide in the land:
“Is the LORD not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?”
(“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?”)
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!
Jeremiah 8:18–9:1, NRSV
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Matthew 9:9–13 NRSV
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
These are the powerful words of the traditional African American spiritual. They were borne out of the pain and injustice of slavery, from the mouth of the mistreated and abused. They offer remarkable words of hope; hope that is sung through tears of suffering, which through God’s healing power are transformed into tears of joy.
* * *
The images used in the spiritual take their inspiration from our readings this morning.
From the Prophet Jeremiah, it borrows the image of the ‘balm in Gilead’. A balm is a special ointment that was used in the ancient world to cure and heal wounds, and this becomes for Jeremiah a powerful metaphor of the healing power of God. Jeremiah asks, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ The answer is, yes, there is, if only the people would recognise their need, and turn for healing. Jeremiah is so overcome by his people’s plight that he weeps over their sin. Or is it God himself who is weeping? The Hebrew is uncertain and could be read in both ways.
From the Apostle Matthew—whose festival we honour today—the spiritual borrows the image of the physician who can cure souls. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” says Christ. It is no coincidence that Matthew places his own call to discipleship alongside this teaching of Jesus. Christ calls not the righteous, but sinners. Matthew, once a greedy tax collector who cheated and betrayed his own people, knows this more than most. He is given a second chance when he encounters Jesus. He repents, and follows the one who is able to cure the ‘sin-sick soul’.
The healing power of God that Jeremiah speaks of is fulfilled in Matthew’s presentation of Christ the healer. He is the one who is able to forgive sins and bring wholeness and abundant life to humanity.
The prophets and the apostles speak with one voice. They call the people to repentance, and point to God’s Messiah as the one who is able to restore, forgive, and heal.
* * *
Today, we are giving thanks for Revd Ashley’s time among us in the Western Dales as one who has ministered the healing grace of God. He has been a gentle presence, always bringing a smile and good cheer with him as he has led services and participated in our community life.
The priest is called out from among the people of God to play a special part in the proclamation of the prophets and the apostles. The priest joins with them in pointing to Christ, the healer. The priest declares the forgiveness that God offers each one of us. And the priest invites all to receive the love of God in tangible form, as we follow our Lord’s command to share bread and wine, which become for us the body and blood of Christ.
In the second century, the church father Ignatius of Antioch famously described the sacrament as “the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.” St Paul teaches that to participate in the sacrament is to participate in Christ, and to receive his healing power. This is our ‘balm in Gilead’, the spiritual food that sustains us in our pilgrimage through life.
* * *
Our world needs this healing presence today.
Some need saving from the oppressive forces that afflict society. All those who experience war, poverty, slavery, prejudice, and discrimination of all kinds. Some need healing for specific things that have happened in their lives that have brought hurt and pain. Some need healing and forgiveness for the ways in which they have mistreated others, like St Matthew himself. Today, we are invited to turn again to the God who heals, as we share in Holy Communion.
But Jeremiah reminds us that this healing is often accompanied by tears. “O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears”. Tears that well up from the depths of our soul are the handmaidens of change and transformation. There is no shortcut to spiritual healing. True healing requires us to do business with God, to bring before him our complaint, to acknowledge our faults, and to cast ourselves upon his loving mercy.
As you come for communion this morning, bring your tears. Bring the places and people that are on your heart. And bring the wounds that long for the healing power of our ‘balm in Gilead’.
Amen.